What’s the album that changed your life? That’s the question KPCC’s AirTalk asked listeners and NPR music critic Ann Powers last month. You can share your own answer below.
One of Powers' picks: Kate Bush’s The Dreaming, which she calls “wild and experimental.”
“For me, it showed what a woman could do as an artist,” Powers said. “You could defy every stereotype, every limit. And that just changed my life, and opened up my own work … as well as my listening practices.”
Here are some of the other albums she chose:
Two songs that particularly struck her: “If I Die Young” by the Band Perry and “Sprained Ankle” by Julien Baker.
We also heard from listeners on AirTalk; here are some of the comments they shared with us:
Eamon in Inglewood: “I’m from the West of Ireland. It rains there a lot, it doesn’t rain here. Hotel California [by the Eagles], even the album cover is spellbinding. The last line of the last song on the album says, ‘Call someplace Paradise, kiss it Goodbye.’ As you know, Paradise, California was involved in that awful fire a couple years ago. I always think about that line.”
Evelyn in Beverly Hills: “If you look past some of the language and examine the narrative message. I think [Tupac Shakur] was the greatest hip-hop artist of all time — far, far above Eminem. Better Dayz, the two-part album, is my personal favorite. It hits on not only the struggle of the Black community, but on the hopes of the future. Tupac delved into the real message and meaning of the hip-hop subculture. All Eyez On Me is another one. 2Pacalypse Now. … It’s hard for me to place which [of his albums] is my most life-changing. I was very much touched by his identification with his mother. I also admired how he addressed the issues of the youth at that time. He looked at the younger generations, and how things were affecting them, and spoke to that.”
Here at LAist/KPCC, we asked our own staff about the albums that affected them. Some of the picks by folks around here:
Now's your chance to share your own answer.
